“You see, brother,” they said in response to his testimony, “how many thousands of believers there are among the Jews, and they are all zealous for the law. They have been told about you that you teach all the Jews living among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, and that you tell them not to circumcise their children or observe the customs. ... So do what we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow. Join these men, go through the rite of purification with them, and pay for the shaving of their heads. Thus all will know that there is nothing in what they have been told about you, but that you yourself observe and guard the law. But as for the Gentiles who have become believers, we have sent a letter with our judgment that they should abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication” (NRSV). ULe 147.4
These men assured Paul that the former council’s decision about Gentile converts and the ceremonial law was still good. But the advice they now gave was not consistent with that decision. The Spirit of God did not prompt this instruction. It was the fruit of cowardice. ULe 147.5
Many of the Jews who had accepted the gospel still cherished the ceremonial law. They were only too willing to make unwise concessions in the hope of removing prejudice and winning their countrymen to faith in Christ as the world’s Redeemer. Paul realized that as long as many leading members of the church at Jerusalem continued to hold prejudice against him, they would constantly work against his influence. He felt that if he could win them to the truth by a reasonable concession, he would remove a great obstacle to the success of the gospel in other places. But God did not authorize him to go as far as they asked. ULe 148.1
When we think of Paul’s great desire to be in harmony with other believers, his tenderness toward those who were weak in faith, and his deep respect for the apostles who had been with Christ, it is less surprising that he felt it necessary to depart from the firm course he had followed up to then. But his efforts to satisfy others’ concerns only brought on his predicted sufferings more quickly, separated him from the other believers, and deprived the church of one of its strongest pillars. ULe 148.2
The next day Paul began to follow the counsel of the elders. He took the four men under the Nazirite vow (see Numbers 6) into the temple. Those who advised Paul to do this had not considered how it would put him in great danger. He had visited many of the world’s largest cities and was well known to thousands who had come to Jerusalem to attend the feast. Among these were men who hated Paul bitterly. He would risk his life to enter the temple on a public occasion. For several days he was apparently unnoticed, but as he was talking with a priest about the sacrifices to be offered, some Jews from Asia recognized him. ULe 148.3
With the fury of demons they rushed at him. “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against the people, the law, and this place.” And as the people responded to the call for help, another accusation was added—“furthermore he also brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.” ULe 148.4
By Jewish law, for an uncircumcised person to enter the inner courts of the sacred temple was a crime punishable by death. Paul had been seen in the city with Trophimus, an Ephesian, and people concluded that he had brought him into the temple. He had not done so, and since he was a Jew himself, his own act of entering the temple was no violation of the law. ULe 148.5